* Corresponding author. Tel: +2348035523818 E-mail address: remiokeke@gmail.com (R. C. Okeke) © 2016 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. doi: 10.5267/j.ac.2015.12.008 Accounting 2 (2016) 1–10 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Accounting homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/ac/ac.html Human capital accounting: A literature review Remi Chukwudi Okeke * Department of Public Administration and Local Government, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria C H R O N I C L E A B S T R A C T Article history: Received June 5, 2015 Received in revised format August 16 2015 Accepted December 21 2015 Available online December 24 2015 This study interrogates the meaning and conceptual nuances of human capital accounting and additionally highlights its empirical dimensions. A critical aspect of the concerns of the study borders on the validity of an interdisciplinary interpretation of the trajectories of human capital accounting. The methodology of the study is purposively the literature review. The study has attempted to underscore the essential aspects of the critical developments in the subject matter of human capital accounting. It has also tried to draw attention to the shortcomings of earlier studies, while showing the strengths of the influential types of such previous researches. Finally, the interdisciplinary thesis of the problem of the study was upheld, as having a large measure of validity. The empirical import of the concept of human capital accounting however, remains contentions. Consequently, continuous interdisciplinary research-engagement is recommended as an outcome of the study. Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved. 6 © 201 Keywords: Human Capital Human Resource Accounting Literature Review 1. Introduction What is human capital accounting? In the context of research and scholarship, does human capital accounting possibly belong to the social sciences or wholly to the field of accountancy and allied professions? In empirical terms, what does human capital accounting truly represent or embed? Is human capital accounting a tool of public administration or business administration? Is it an interdisciplinary area of theoretical and empirical engagement? Is human capital accounting researchable in public administration, specifically in the area of human resource management? Indeed, these are the research questions that motivated this study. Consequently, the methodology of the study is a literature review. In the process of examining the extant literature, answers to the aforementioned questions shall begin to unfold. This study is therefore considered significant because, there are still universally, grey areas to be sorted out on the subject matter of human capital accounting. It is intended that the results of the study will enkindle interest in further research on the subject matter of human capital accounting. Moreover, the primary purpose of a literature review is to display and underscore the state of affairs on a certain topic. Incidental to the presentation of such state of affairs, subsequent